Pacific Islander Ioane Teitiota fails in bid to be first climate change refugee

Updated
Wed Nov 27 04:44:02 EST 2013

Photo

An average height of 2 metres above sea level makes Kiribati one of the countries most vulnerable to rising waters and other climate change effects.

Reuters: David Gray

An i-Kiribati man's bid to become the world's first climate change refugee has failed, with a New Zealand judge describing his case as "unconvincing".

Lawyers for Ioane Teitiota, 37, argued that NZ immigration authorities should not deport him, even though his visa had expired, because rising seas were threatening his low-lying homeland of Kiribati in the central Pacific.

The difficulties Mr Teitiota and his family would encounter in Kiribati - which consists of more than 30 coral atolls, most only a few metres above sea level - meant they should be recognised as refugees, the lawyers said.

In a written ruling handed down on Tuesday, high court judge John Priestley acknowledged that Kiribati was suffering environmental degradation attributable to climate change, including storm surges, flooding and water contamination.

But he said that under the internationally recognised UN Refugee Convention a refugee must fear persecution if they returned to their homeland, a criteria Teitiota did not meet.

"The economic environment of Kiribati might certainly not be as attractive to the applicant and his fellow nationals as the economic environment and prospects of Australia and New Zealand," he said.

"[But] his position does not appear to be different from that of any other Kiribati national."

The judge rejected the argument from Mr Teitiota's legal team that he was being "persecuted passively" by the environment because climate change was a threat to him that the Kiribati government was powerless to control.

"Novel and optimistic though these submissions are, they are unconvincing and must fail," Mr Priestley wrote.

"On a broad level, were they to succeed and be adopted in other jurisdictions, at a stroke, millions of people who are facing medium-term economic deprivation, or the immediate consequences of natural disasters or warfare, or indeed presumptive hardships caused by climate change, would be entitled to protection under the Refugee Convention."

He said there had been numerous similar claims under international law for climate change refugee status by people from low-lying countries such as Tonga, Fiji and Bangladesh, none of which had succeeded.

"It is not for the High Court of New Zealand to alter the scope of the Refugee Convention in that regard," he said. "Rather that is the task, if they so choose, of the legislatures of sovereign states."

Kiribati is among a number of island states - including Tuvalu, Tokelau and the Maldives - the UN Human Rights Commission is concerned could become "stateless" due to climate change.

Kiribati's government has raised the prospect of relocating the entire population or building man-made islands to rehouse them if predictions the sea will rise by one metre by the end of the century prove accurate.

It has also moved to buy 2,000 hectares of land in Fiji to act as a farm for Kiribati if salt-water pollution means the islands in the former British colony can no longer produce crops.

Mr Teitiota's lawyer was not immediately available to comment on the ruling.

Pacific nations face major economic losses due to climate change

Meanwhile, a new report suggests Australia's Pacific neighbours will face big economic losses due to climate change by the end of the century.

The report released by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) suggests economic losses of up to 15 per cent of annual gross domestic product (GDP) for Pacific island nations by 2100.

Under a potential temperature rise of 2-3 degrees Celsius by 2070, the report assessed potential impacts on agriculture, fisheries and tourism.

The ADB also assessed the likely cost effects of climate change on coral reefs and human health.

Papua New Guinea is facing the most serious economic threat, with a potential loss of 15.2 per cent of GDP.

East Timor's GDP is predicted to drop by up to 10 per cent, followed by Vanuatu at 6.2 per cent, Solomon Islands at 4.7 per cent, Fiji at 4.0 per cent and Samoa at 3.8 per cent.

The ADB says major polluting nations such as Australia need to assist Pacific island countries in the fight against natural disasters, crop losses and forced migration.

Assistant researcher at the bank Cyn Young Park says these nations are likely to require roughly 450 million dollars in funding in each year in their fight against climate change.

"The countries will require a lot of financial flows and aid coming from the international community, and especially Australia being a big country in the region," Ms Park said.

She says sea-level rise for the Pacific island nations is also expected to be significant.

"In effect, for most Pacific Island countries sea-level rise is expected to be over one metre," Ms Park said.

"Given that most of these countries actually have high population densities around the coastal areas with active commercial activities in the coastal area, it's going to be a big threat, together with the risk of inundation and high frequency of flooding."